We left Halifax for a 3 hour drive to Cape Breton Island. We arrived in Baddeck around 3 pm. We stopped at the info centre and walked through town doing a little shopping. We had dinner at Baddeck Lobster Supper where we had seafood chowder, all you can eat mussels and lobster. Again, delicious. We were then off to Seaweed and Sod Farm B&B about 40 minutes away. You can actually see Baddeck from the B&B across the water but have to travel 20 minutes up the highway and then another 20 minutes down the peninsula where the B&B is located. On our arrival, we were greeted by Fauna (dog), Shamus (dog), Toodles (cat), Boot (cat), Milly (cat) and Pirate (cat). Terri, the owner, then came out and showed us to our room. This is a great B&B! It is located smack dab in the middle of nowhere. It has 2 rooms with a shared bathroom. We settled in and were looking at some maps and brochures when Terri asked if we wanted to go for a walk to the top of the hill. They own 100 acres. We walked up the hill with Fauna, Shamus and Jack (the inside dog) and got a beautiful view of the sunset. We opened a bottle of wine and Terri joined us (her husband Dave got caught up at work). We chatted until about 10:30 and went to bed.
On Friday, we had a great breakfast of bacon and eggs and then headed off to the Cabot Trail. We stopped at many little craft shops along the way and had lunch of a lobster roll and fish and chips at Cal's. Delicious. We made our way through Ingonish and up to Neil's Harbour where we had some seafood chowder (just OK). The views along the Cabot Trail were great. We wanted to attend a Ceilidh (pronounced "kay-lee") - a small gathering of people where musicians play celtic music (the also call them kitchen parties) - and found one at St. Ann's church near the start of the Cabot Trail. It started at 7 pm (or so we thought) and it was 5 pm. We decided to head back to the B&B for a rest but waited for 2 ferries and didn't get on. By now, it didn't make sense to go back so we turned around and went back up the trail to the Clucking Hen for a coffee and pastry. We headed back to the Ceilidh. It didn't start until 8 pm. A group called The Narrows (5 musicians were playing that night). It was FANTASTIC!. They played mostly Irish music and were FANTASTIC. One of the members would start a song that the others didn't know but they would all pick up on it. Some audience members got up and played with them as well - at one point there were 8 people on stage. Some audience members also got up and danced Irish jigs on a whim. The evening was capped when one of the band members said "Do we have some time for the the pipes?" He pulled bag pipes out from behind the piano and played for about 15 minutes non-stop and good stuff - not the typical parade music. Definitely one of the highlights of our trip. Cost $10 and they stopped midway for a break and the church sold coffee and oat cakes and brownies as a fundraiser. We ended up sitting beside a guy from Calgary who has a summer cottage here. On the road after 10 pm arriving back at the B&B at 11 pm.
On Saturday, we went to the Fortress of Louisbourg - about 1.5 hours away. It was the major French Port in the area (until take over by the British twice and then forever). The Fortress has people in period costumes meandering throughout the ground and buildings. They were very informative. We had a tour with Louise who was great. We stopped at the laundromat and did laundry which should get us through the rest of our trip. We had dinner at Grubstake in Louisbourg - it was just ok. WE arrived back at the B&B at 8 pm. We sat with Terri, Dave, Fraser and Ni (new guests) until about 11 pm. We had a great evening. We are going to stay another night here to have a relaxing down day - Terri is fully booked but found us another room in the house which will work just fine for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment